A project-based learning unit exploring identity and transformation through African and American masks.
This PBL unit connects a school’s Grade 5 themes of identity and coming of age; literature study of African fables; and Social Studies explorations of Africa as the cradle of civilization to masks in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum. Students develop their own mask and fable to convey a particular identity and transformation important to their own experiences.
This unit is organized around the understanding that:
“By putting on a mask and becoming someone else, the artists in this exhibition reveal—and reinvent—the hidden truths of the world around us.” (Disguise: Masks and Global African Art, 2016, Brooklyn Museum).
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Namgis (Native American). Thunderbird Transformation Mask, 19th century. Cedar, pigment, leather, nails, metal plate, Open: 31 x 45 x 47 in. (78.7 x 114.3 x 119.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Museum Expedition 1908, Museum Collection Fund, 08.491.8902. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 08.491.8902_front_PS6.jpg)
https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/19432
Cover image: Bamileke. Kuosi Society Elephant Mask, 20th century. Cloth, beads, raffia, fiber, 57 3/4 x 20 1/2 x 11 1/2 in. (146.7 x 52.1 x 29.2 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Purchased with funds given by Mr. and Mrs. Milton F. Rosenthal, 81.170. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 81.170_detail_SL1.jpg)
https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/4852